The present invention is directed to a network call center that provides customers, using a local telephone number, access to large virtual agent teams while reducing terminating facilities.
Many businesses use agents or operators to service customers by telephone. These businesses often employ several agents connected to an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system, such as a Meridian.RTM. ACD manufactured by Northern Telecom, Ltd., to handle multiple calls simultaneously. The call center technology distributes the calls, usually dialed with an toll-free number, to the agents.
There are three principal types of call center technology: standalone ACDs, ACDs integrated with a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), and central office based ACDs. The most commonly used type is the ACD integrated with a PBX.
Some conventional call center owners provide call center services through multiple local branches. Each local branch connects to an ACD to service customers in their respective service areas. To contact one of the local branches, customers dial a local telephone number.
Other conventional call center owners permit remote (non-local) agents to service customer calls. Customers typically access these call centers using a toll-free telephone number.
To accomplish remote agent servicing, the local ACD switch, to which the local agents connect, determines the status of the local agents. If all of the local agents are busy when a customer call arrives, the local ACD switch determines whether to queue the call until an agent becomes available or to forward the call to a remote ACD switch for servicing. This determination is normally preestablished by the call center owner.
If the call is to be forwarded, the local ACD switch determines a network identifier for the remote ACD switch from a database and forwards the customer call using the network identifier. At the remote ACD switch, the call is queued or routed to an available agent for servicing.
The conventional call center described above causes unnecessary delays in the servicing of customer calls due to the determinations that must be made by the local ACD switch as to whether a particular customer call is to be forwarded and the identity of a remote ACD switch that will handle the customer call. Also, because queued calls can only be serviced by those agents of the agent team that connect to the ACD queuing the call, additional expense and network resources are required to forward the calls from the queuing ACD to one that is less busy. This forwarding of calls increases the average wait time before an agent services a customer's call, and requires additional terminating facilities.
Therefore, a need exists to provide customers with more timely access to agents while reducing agent staffing requirements and terminating facilities.